The School of Open Learning has already accepted 500 students, though the last date for submitting applications is still a good two months away.

Correspondence courses are becoming popular. Not only because the School of Open Learning is a favourite recourse to a Delhi University degree for those left out of the ever-escalating cut-off lists. Students in other universities also prefer to pursue a DU correspondence degree simultaneously.

This year, 3,46,000 Class XII students passed CBSE, but there are only 43,000 seats in Delhi University. No surprise then that the School of Open Learning has already accepted 500 students, though the last date for submitting applications is still a good two months away, said Savita M. Dutta, the director of the school.

“Delhi University is recognised worldwide, so there is prestige in saying that I have a DU degree,” said Sanjam Sahni, a regular journalism student at a private university who is also doing B.Com through correspondence.

Her classmate Krishn Kaushik added, “Private universities are a new trend in India. I, therefore, feel safer doing a DU correspondence course.” Amity University’s former proctor Avinash Singh said that when students doubted the degree they would receive, the option of a correspondence course from DU never failed to reassure them. Apart from providing a back-up degree, DU correspondence courses are a convenient way of continuing education when doing a job.